This project is concerned with the personality disposition of openness to experience and its relation to coping styles. One study investigates the correspondence between openness and dimensions of personality found in analyses of English-language trait names. One major system of personality is based on the assumption that important individual differences variables will have been encoded in natural languages, and analyses of English have repeatedly shown five factors. To determine correspondences between openness and these five dimensions, an adjective checklist was given to 498 men and women, aged 24 to 89, on whom measures of openness were available. Results showed that the five factors could be recovered in this sample and that one factor, previously called "culture", correspondend to openness to experience. Correlations of .52 between this factor and spouse ratings of openness obtained three years earlier gave strong evidence of the match across time, observer, and instrument. A second study assessed the effectiveness of a wide range of coping mechanisms. Frequently of reported use, perceived utility in solving the problem, perceived helpfulness in reducing distress, and relation to subsequent measures of well-being were all used as criteria of effectiveness. Analyses showed that rational action, seeking help, faith, and humor were generally effective; whereas hostile reactions, indecisiveness, self-blame and wishful thinking were least effective. Both humor, a coping mechanism associated with openness, and faith, a mechanism associated with closedness, were among the more effective mechanisms, suggesting that individual differences in openness to experience lead to different but equally effective ways of coping.